LHR - JFK - CLT; our trip home!

Chris and Braxton waiting for the flight out of London.

 

We spent our final night in England at a nice hotel attached to Heathrow and were able to tube into London for a nice last dinner and some family photos that evening. 

Brax helping me figure out how to get back to the Tube Station.

Yummy last meal in London. 

New fav family photo.

The next morning I sent up a huge prayer essentially begging that Braxton not scream the entire 17-hour journey and then fed B while Chris loaded two luggage carriers with our 6 huge suitcases, car seat, stroller, and three carry-on bags.  Lucky Braxton ate breakfast and then fell right back to sleep in the Ergo carrier, where he would stay asleep for the next three and a half hours.  The kid won’t nap more than 48 minutes in his crib, but absolutely loves the motion of the carrier.   We made it from the hotel to the airport, through 45-minutes of customer support to get our bags checked, navigated the chaos of airport security (he slept through us getting him out of the Ergo, passing him between one another, then putting him back in the Ergo), changed some leftover Swiss Francs for Pounds, ate breakfast, rode the train to our terminal and walked to the gate, and then waited there for an hour before he finally woke up.   We had an amazingly stress-free morning, considering the circumstances! The stress level rose over time, though, as our flight was further and further delayed due to mechanical issues.  Braxton didn’t seem to mind though: he was getting all sorts of cuddles and attention J

6:03 AM leaving the hotel to walk to the airport with two luggage carts and the baby.

Waking up from his 3.5 hour nap, totally oblivious to the day's events.

We lived in England for three years and ended up with exactly 5 Pounds cash to our name!

Our flight finally took off, two and a half hours late.  Brax was asleep again in the Ergo as we boarded, and the flight attendants not only made us take him out (where he was completely strapped to me, and I had my seatbelt on) but also wouldn’t let him be in his airline-approved car-seat.  They wouldn’t take off until he was on my lap with the most useless loop of seatbelt extension around his waist.  On top of the day’s stress and lack of room for our bags over the seat, this absurdity put Chris just about to boiling point.    He managed to hang on, slipping only a couple sharp words to the lady next to him and the flight attendants, and Braxton (by the grace of God) stayed asleep through the entire fiasco.  I literally woke him up to feed as the plane took off (to help his ears) and then he went back to sleep for the next couple hours!  Brax was so happy when he woke up, and so were we.  Chris had enjoyed two bloody Mary’s (free drinks all flight because of the delay) and I was able to get quite a few chapters into a great book.   Our plane neighbors were friendly, warm, and supportive and truly made the eight-hour flight enjoyable!    

I'll have the pasta and a sparling water, please.

Chris had wisely left a four-hour layover at JFK but through a series of unfortunate circumstances (very late first flight, construction at the terminal, having to re-check bags) we missed our flight out of JFK by minutes.  I cried out of sheer frustration, which were the only tears shed by any of us to that point.   

Super happy Braxton made our standby wait in JFK so much more enjoyable.  He should've been asleep or at least cranky (we both were!) - it was after midnight London time. 

Our last chance to get to Charlotte that day was a flight a few hours later.  We were on the standby list but our odds weren’t good as there were a lot of others in the same situation.  The last stragglers boarded and there was suddenly commotion at the gate as a guy came off the plane, on his phone, saying his wife was running to the terminal.  The boarding agent said “SCHMIDT!” and we hurried down the jetway.  The gate agent slammed the door behind us, the man and his wife outside, having missed their flight.  I can’t even say how relieved I was to be on that plane (but did feel a wee bit bad for having ‘stolen’ that couple’s seats).  We ended up sitting next to the teenage daughter of the couple that missed the flight “their fault, we left our house too late!”  The flight itself was uneventful but by the time we disembarked poor Braxton had reached his limit.  It was 3AM London time and he was just absolutely exhausted.  He let out a few bloodcurdling screams while I scrambled to put the carrier on.  Thankfully, it didn’t take long for him to pass out (and then pretty much stayed asleep until the next morning!)  It was surreal seeing mom in the luggage pickup area knowing we weren’t going back to England.  Thank goodness for those huge American vehicles – all of us plus all our things fit into Benson’s ‘Bruiser’.  We made it home, super loopy, and all slept great.   I’d consider a 23-hour travel day with a 4-month old a total success with only 10 minutes of tears between us!